i was thinking about trying to grind down the dome, but with my luck, and poor skill ussage, i was worried about heating up the led to much, and hurting it, or grinding through the little wire in there...

i am not aware of any law that states that it is illegal to open headlight housings, but i do know that it is illegal in almost all states to have anything other than yellow or whilte lights turned on on the front of the car.

didn't know that it was illegal to install hids in my car, though that was why i got projector lenses...

though the morons that designed my projectors only gave it one cutoff(most factory designs seem to use a square hole cutoff to keep the light from straying side to side, and up and down, mine just have a cutoff to keep from blinding airplanes), so i guess i fit into the illegal hid category...

these lights are not always on-- first, they connected to the ignition wire, so they won't be on normally when the car is off, bu then i also have a switch for each style-- so i can have them on individually.

(i also have a switch with constant 12v so that i can turn them on if i want with out turning the car on.)

You cannot modify anything DOT approved or else it no longer is approved. However you can spend a boatload of money, send in a few headlights, and have the DOT test and approve them. But that would cost more than that car is even worth.

Also it looks like you put HIDs into a halogen projector. Better than a reflector, but still not a good idea. It is still going to send more light up (another DOT requirement) then wanted. That and a crappy cutoff. If you are going to do a retrofit, go all the way!

Nice DIY install, but I don't like the job. (no offence, just a diferent taste).

Here where I live (Norway), there have been extreemely popular to mount halos/angel eyes on everything that beams out light... (BMW did realy somthing smart with those).

In the beginning, this where not a problem, but now.. If you drive with anything other than stock, or as close to stock as possible headlights. You will loose the plates of the car right there and then! And you need to park your car there as well. Get caught a second time with illegal headlights and you loose your driving license for about two months.

I still see some "make you go faster cars" with loads of body kits and lights everywhere in every angle, but they are getting fewer in numbers.

oh well, dissapointing to find that my lights are not completely legal, but not surprising

my lights are no longer dot approved because i 'fixed' the jagged cutoff that bothered me(i think in theory, the jagged part was to block a small amount of light going to oncoming traffic, but i still got highbeamed as much as before/after changing it), but this specific mod listed here does not affect the light output of the headlight, so technically, it would be dot qualified

so far, in the US, i have not heard of anyone getting razzed for having modified headlights, and i really don't see it being a concern until it starts effecting safety...i really hope they don't start doing that in the US though(as you can see from the pics, i have also painted parts of the headlight, which could push it over the edge for some officers-- otherwise, this mod would be completly hidden from prying eyes).

though i have heard of others getting pulled over for having HIDs installed on cars that didn't originally have them...

and on a slightly related note, has anyone else noticed that more and more people are driving with their brights on?

I haven't noticed anyone with hi beams on while driving, although I always have my daytime running lights on and at night I have my headlights and foglights on. My headlights are HIDs from Volkswagen in the 4300k spectrum I would like to change them to 6000k to get a truer white but I think too many people would assume I have my hi beams on due to increase light output.

... I would like to change them to 6000k to get a truer white but I think too many people would assume I have my hi beams on due to increase light output.

Actually the higher color temperature doesn't equal brighter. The human eye perceives whiter light as being brighter, even if it is the same amount of lumens ( and its usually less because the higher color temperature is achieved by using a blue film on the bulb, blocking some light).

A yellowish headlight works better in inclement weather also, thats why you'll see people with really yellow fog lights. But the white headlights do look cool.